Click a letter below to visit the related Glossary

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

ADSL

Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line. Technology to carry high speed data over ordinary phone lines. It is up to 70 times as fast as a 28.8 modem, and can be used concurrently with voice over the same line. It is gradually being offered to homes commercially now. It is called "asymmetric" because download speeds to the subscriber are faster than upload speeds from the subscriber.

Adware

Any software which serves banner ads or pop-up ads to you while in use. It is sometimes installed in freeware or shareware which you download from the nets, and provides one more channel for advertisers to reach you. Some adware will also track your files, net usage, and software and report it back to advertisers to help them channel relevant ads to you.

Anonymous FTP

A traditional form of login to a public ftp site where the username is given as 'anonymous' and the password is your e-mail address, for example 'hellosunny@gmail.com'.

API

Application Program Interface. An interface between the operating system and application programs that specifies how the two communicate with each other.

An application that is downloaded from a web page and executed by browser software. Also, an HTML tag that defines an applet program.

American Standard Code for Information Interchange. A standard way to encode upper and lower case letters in the English alphabet, numbers, and special characters using only seven bits, and therefore limited to 128 characters.

Active Server Pages, the Microsoft version of Server side scripting language. The coding is similar to Visual Basic.

Audio Video Interleaved. A Microsoft video format where audio and video coding appears in alternate segments. AVI files will end with an .avi extension.

Top

B:

Backbone

How much stuff you can send through a connection. Usually measured in bits-per-second (bps.) A full page of English text is about 16,000 bits. A fast modem can move about 57,000 bits in one second. Full-motion full-screen video would require roughly 10,000,000 bits-per-second, depending on compression.

In common usage the baud rate of a modem is how many bits it can send or receive per second. Technically, baud is the number of times per second that the carrier signal shifts value - for example a 1200 bit-per-second modem actually runs at 300 baud, but it moves 4 bits per baud (4 x 300= 1200 bits per second).

Information consisting entirely of ones and zeros. Also, commonly used to refer to files that are not simply text files, e.g. images.

A blog is basically a journal that is available on the web. The activity of updating a blog is "blogging" and someone who keeps a blog is a "blogger." Blogs are typically updated daily using software that allows people with little or no technical background to update and maintain the blog. Postings on a blog are almost always arranged in reverse chronological order.

Generally refers to connections to the Internet with much greater bandwidth than you can get with a modem. There is no specific definition of the speed of a "broadband" connection but in general any Internet connection using DSL or a via Cable-TV may be considered a broadband connection

Top

C:

Code Division Multiple Access - A protocol for wireless data and voice communication, CMDA is widely used in cellphone networks, but also in many other data communications systems. CDMA uses a technique called "Spread Spectrum" whereby the data being transmitted is spread across multiple radio frequencies, making more efficient use of available radio spectrum.

Common Gateway Interface - A set of rules that describe how a Web Server communicates with another piece of software on the same machine, and how the other piece of software (the ?CGI program?) talks to the web server. Any piece of software can be a CGI program if it handles input and output according to the CGI standard

The most common name of a directory on a web server in which CGI programs are stored.

The most common meaning of "Cookie" on the Internet refers to a piece of information sent by a Web Server to a Web Browser that the Browser software is expected to save and to send back to the Server whenever the browser makes additional requests from the Server. Information like user login or registration information, user preferences etc. are stored in a cookie. Cookies generally expires after a predetermined time.

Cascading Style Sheets -  A standard for specifying the appearance of text and other elements. CSS was developed for use with HTML in Web pages but is also used in other situations, notably in applications built using XPFE. CSS is typically used to provide a single "library" of styles that are used over and over throughout a large number of related documents, as in a web site. A CSS file might specify that all numbered lists are to appear in italics. By changing that single specification the look of a large number of documents can be easily changed.

Top

D:

The Domain Name System is the system that translates Internet domain names into IP numbers. A "DNS Server" is a server that performs this kind of translation.

Top

 E:

A common protocol used for Local Area Networking. 10BaseT, 100BaseT and Gigabyte Ethernet are the examples of Ethernet which follows CSMA-CD protocol.

A network that supplements a closed intranet by providing access to customers, suppliers, subcontractors, and others outside the organization who have a need for selective information from the organization. It is not accessible to the Internet at large

Top

 F:

FAQs are documents that list and answer the most common questions on a particular subject. There are hundreds of FAQs on subjects as diverse as Pet Grooming and Cryptography. FAQs are usually written by people who have tired of answering the same question over and over.

A standard for transmitting data on optical fiber cables at a rate of around 100,000,000 bits-per-second

An Internet software tool for locating people on other Internet sites. Finger is also sometimes used to give access to non-personal information, but the most common use is to see if a person has an account at a particular Internet site. Many sites do not allow incoming Finger requests, but many do.

Firewall refers to the concept of a security interface or gateway between a closed system or network and the outside Internet that blocks or manages communications in and out of the system. The security may be provided by passwords, authentication techniques, software, and hardware. See the related term proxy server.

Frames are a technique used in web pages to divide the page into multiple windows, where each window is called a frame and can contain its own separate page. The advantage of frames is that one window can be scrolled or changed while other windows remain fixed for such purposes as keeping a menu in view all the time. The disadvantage is that not all browsers support them.

 G:

Top

Graphical Interchange Format. A bitmap graphical format originally developed for CompuServe that is widely used in WWW pages. It is particularly good for text art, cartoon art, poster art, and line drawings- -all types with solid colors and distinct lines or borders between different colors. GIF files use a .gif extension

A friendly menu system for exploring the Internet developed at the University of Minnesota.

Globally Unique Identifier - A 16-byte number generated by Microsoft programs that uniquely identifies a network or user or computer or document. It is one of the elements of information that can be passed when you connect to an Internet site, and it may be stored in cookies.

Top

H:

In computer programming, a hacker is a software designer and programmer who builds programs and systems that garner the respect of one's peers. A hacker can also be a programmer who hacks or reaches a goal by employing a series of modifications to exploit or extend existing code or resources. For some, "hacker" has a negative connotation and refers to a person who "hacks" or uses kludges to accomplish programming tasks that are ugly, inelegant, and inefficient.

A home page is a web page. In most familiar terms, it is a personal page for an individual. It can also be the basic main page for a more complex web site for individuals, organizations, or web communities. On complex web sites, it is the page which a server will show when no HTML filename is listed, usually with the name index.html, home.html, or default.html or the same names with the shorter extension .htm.

HyperText Markup Language - The coding system used to create WWW pages. A page written in HTML is a text file that includes tags in angle brackets that control the fonts and type sizes, insertion of graphics, layout of tables and frames, paragraphing, calls to short runnable programs, and hypertext links to other pages. Files written in HTML generally use an .html or .htm extension.

HyperText Transfer Protocol - It is the main protocol used on the World Wide Web that enables linking to other web sites. Addressing to other web pages begins with "http://" and is followed by the domain name or IP address.

A device that connects the cables from computers and other devices such as printers in an Ethernet local area network. Traditionally, hubs are used for star topology networks, but they are often used with other configurations to make it easy to add and remove computers without bringing down the network. Smart hubs or switching hubs are often used to improve performance by managing traffic.

A link in a web page that brings you to another location or resource when activated. Hyperlinks usually appear as underlined text and printed in a contrasting color, but they may also appear as graphics, such as buttons to click. Hyperlinks may link to another place in the same page, to a different page, to play an audio or video file, to download a file, to set up a message to an e-mail address, to search a database, to read Usenet newsgroups, and to link to other Internet resources.

Top 

I:

A network of networks that interconnects within a single widespread organization and uses the Internet Protocol (IP). The sites within an Intranet are generally closed to the Internet and are accessible to organization members only.

IP addresses, together with domain addresses are the two forms of Internet addresses in common use. IP addresses consist of four numbers between 0 and 255, separated by dots. Example 192.168.1.1, 10.10.1.1. Every computer on the Internet can also be identifed by their unique IP addresses apart from their domain names.

Internet Relay Chat - An Internet protocol that allows people all over the world to meet in conference groups (called channels) and chat with each other by typing.

Top

J:

A programming language developed by Sun Microsystems based on C++. It is used with web pages to create applets that will run on different platforms. Java has grown in to a major programming language with introduction of techniques of JSP, Servlets, JSF and Struts.

A script language (with little in common with Java) developed by Netscape for writing short programs embedded in a web page. It is supported by Netscape from version 2.0 on and Microsoft and AOL browsers from version 4.0 on. MSIE 3.0 partially supports some features of Javascript.

Joint Photographic Experts Group, a graphical format that is widely used in WWW pages. It is particularly well suited to photographs and 3D or VRML images where there is a continuous range of colours or shades. It is a lossy format that can be reduced in file size by reducing the detail in the image. JPEG files use a .jpg or less commonly, .jpeg or .jpe extension.

Top

K:

A common terminal emulation program and file transfer protocol that can be used across dialup and telnet connections. It is able to transfer 8-bit files across a 7-bit telnet connection.

Top

L:

Top

M:

Information about data, or more specifically, the descriptive information provided in meta tags in an HTML or XML document header about that document.

In HTML or XML, a tag used in the header of a page to provide information about the page. There may be multiple meta tags in a header, each with different information. In current usage, each tag includes the name of the information and the content that supports that name.

The set of problems occurring on January 1, 2000 and other related dates caused by shortsighted programming that coded the years with only 2 digits. Ambiguity arises in the year 2000 as to whether 00 represents the year 1900 or the year 2000, and calculations based on it may fail or produce incorrect results. It can affect software, hardware, operating systems, and devices with embedded software. Another common programming error is failing to account for the year 2000 as a leap year (by the 400 year rule).

Acronym for Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions. The standard for attaching binary files to Internet mail messages. Its usage has been extended to identifying and handling file types encountered by web servers and browsers. Binary types include audio, video, graphics, spreadsheets, formatted word-processor documents, executable programs, etc. An email program is said to be MIME Compliant if it can both send and receive files using MIME. When binary files are sent using the MIME standard they are converted (encoded) into text for mailing and then decoded by the receiving mailer. If the receiving mailer is not MIME compliant, the file is received in encoded form. If an encoded file is received with "Base64" in the header, it is MIME encoded. There are Base64 decoders available separately for various operating systems. For Windows, WinCode will handle decoding offline.

Short for modulator/demodulator. A modem is used between a computer and a phone or cable line to convert the computer's digital signal to an analog signal for the line and vice versa.

Top

N:

Top

O:

Open-source software is computer software whose source code is available under a license (or arrangement such as the public domain) that permits users to study, change, and improve the software, and to redistribute it in modified or unmodified form. It is often developed in a public, collaborative manner. It is the most prominent example of open source development and often compared to user generated content.

Acronym for Open Systems Interconnect. This is a model for connecting computers together in a network. The model consists of seven distinct and separate layers of protocols, viz., Physical layer, Data Link Layer, Network Layer, Transport Layer, Sessions Layer, Presentation Layer and Application layer.

Top

P:

A packet is a self-contained bundle of data sent over a packet switching network. Packets are typically less than 1500 bytes in size. Longer files are broken into multiple packets for transmission and reassembled at the other end. A packet includes a header with to and from addresses, relation to other packets (sequencing), and error checking information. On the Internet, datagram is a synonym for packet.

Adobe's Portable Document Format - It is often used as a format which allows much more complete, controlled layout of a page and its graphics and text than conventional HTML does. It requires a browser plug-in to see a web page in PDF format. Files will usually have a .pdf extension.

Packet InterNet Groper - An Internet utility used to check the connection with another site. It repeatedly bounces a signal off the remote site and shows you how long it took to complete the round trip each time.

One dot on a computer screen. Today's least expensive monitors typically are 800 pixels wide and 600 pixels high. Larger and more expensive monitors range up to 1600 x 1200 pixels and special purpose monitors may go much higher than that.

A piece of software that plugs into a main program to give it added capability, for example, you can add a Quick Time plug-in to your browser to play Quick Time movies on the web.

Portable Network Graphics - A graphics format designed as the successor to GIF. It features compression, transparency, and progressive loading, like GIF, but it is free of patent restrictions. It is supported by most current browsers, beginning in 1997.

Post Office Protocol - A protocol for client-server e-mail systems. It is a facility provided by E-mail service providers. A POP account may be accessed by MS Outlook, Office Outlook Express or by accessing Webmail.

A gateway or entrance to the web. In common usage it has come to describe a starting point page with a hierarchical, topical directory, a search window, and added features like news headlines and stock quotes.

Point to Point Protocol -Along with the older SLIP, a protocol that is used with a dialup to complete a TCP/IP network connection from a remote site.

A standard for the exchange of information. Different computers and operating systems and software are able to communicate with each other on the Internet, because of the adoption of protocols.

A proxy server is a process that acts like a switchboard through a firewall to manage the various types of permitted communications with the outside world. Proxy servers may also use caching to make communications more efficient.

Top

Q:

Top

R:

Redundant Arrays of Independent Disks. Using duplicated disks for error recovery and more efficient operation. Servers use RAID controlled storages systems.

The process of logging to a remote computer from a terminal connected to a local computer.

A device that extends the distance a signal can travel by regenerating the signal.

A network configuration (topology) in which all computers and devices are connected to a circular pathway.

A router connects networks together, controlling the routing of packets from source to destination and providing alternate paths when necessary. Routers are more sophisticated than bridges, connecting networks of different types (for example, star and token ring), and making logical routing decisions on the basis of available data. Typically a router hands off packets to another router along the path until the destination is reached.

Rich Text Format - A text format that allows a lot of specific formatting and layout. Uses the .rtf extension.

Top

S:

A utility that will search the Internet, an Intranet, a site, or a database for terms that you select.

A computer in a network that provides access to other computers in the network to programs, web pages, data, or other files and services, such as printer access or communications access. A server may also authenticate requests for files and services before providing them.

Acronym for Standard Graphics Markup Language. It was adopted in 1986 as an international standard (ISO 8879) for the creation, management, storage, and delivery of information products. HTML and its possible successor, XML, are both subsets of SGML.

Software that is offered for free download in hopes that the user will decide to keep it and pay a fee for it after trying it out.

Serial Line Interface Protocol - Along with the newer PPP, a protocol that can be used with a dialup connection to an ISP to complete a TCP/IP Internet connection.

Simple Mail Transfer Protocol -The protocol used to send mail between servers and to send mail from your client to a mail server.

Traditionally, spam is flooding message boards, newsgroups, mailing lists, or your mailbox with unwanted, unsolicited off-topic messages--usually ads or promotions or deliberate disruptions. It is a major violation of netiquette, and it violates member agreements in most places and can lead to account cancellation. While spam is usually viewed as large numbers of messages, to the individual, one unwanted message is spam.

Software planted on a system to capture and reveal information to someone outside that system. It can do such things as capture the keystrokes while typing passwords, read and track e-mail, record what sites visited, pass along credit card numbers and so on. It can be planted by Trojan horses or viruses, installed as part of freeware or shareware programs downloaded and run, installed by an employer to track computer usage, or even planted by advertising agencies to assist in feeding targeted ads.

Secure Sockets Layer - A security protocol developed by Netscape for commercial transactions on the Internet. Using public-key cryptography, it provides server authentication, data encryption, and data integrity.

A network configuration (topology) in which all computers and devices are connected by direct cables to a central hub.

Top

T:

In reference to web pages, a tag is an HTML command used in laying out a web page and providing links to resources.

Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol - The protocols that are the basis for transmitting and routing data packets on the Internet. The Internet Protocol is the one thing that all current Internet sites have in common. Unlike OSI model TCP/IP has five layers, viz., Physical, Datalink, Network, Transport layer and Application layer.

Telnet is a protocol that lets you log in to a remote computer and use programs and data that the remote owner has made available, just as if it were your local computer.

A series of messages with the same subject. It consists of an original message and all the replies and replies to replies that follow. Thread may also be considered to be a small program module running inside a larger program.

A destructive program that masquerades as a harmless one. When one runs a Trojan horse program, believing that it has a useful function, it will instead, for example, erase his hard drive.

Top

U:

A standard character set which uses two bytes or 16 bits to code each character. Compare it to ASCII, which uses only one byte or 8 bits per character. ASCII is limited to 256 characters, enough for most European languages, but too limited for languages like Chinese and Japanese with their many characters.

Universal Resource Identifier - A standardized method of identifying and locating resources which includes Uniform Resource Names (URN) and Uniform Resource Locators (URL). The system is only partly implemented today, but when fully implemented, when a URN is requested, it will be systematically matched with a set of URLs for the resource to find the best available route to the resource.

Uniform Resource Locator. URLs specify the location of a resource in the Internet. You can type or paste a URL into the Location window in your browser and then connect to it. The URL shows the type of item and its basic address and path. The major types are http, gopher, ftp, telnet, newsgroups, news articles, and files, which may be programs, text, graphics, audio, video, etc.

Top

V:

In mathematics and physics, a vector is a line which has a defined starting point, a designated direction and a specified distance. Vector graphics are line-based graphics. In vector graphics, vectors determine how straight and curved lines (Beziers or splines) are shaped between specific points. The lines and the colors of areas enclosed by the lines make up the picture. Microsoft SYLK is an example of a pure vector format. More commonly used are bitmap files and hybrids of vector and bitmap known as metafiles.

Virtual Private Network - A private network within a public network, usually on the Internet. Privacy for the virtual network is achieved through encryption and provides a less expensive option than using dedicated lines.

A destructive program that has the ability to reproduce itself and infect other programs or disks. Typically a virus will not show itself immediately, but will add itself to programs and disks to spread itself widely on many computers before it is triggered into its destructive phase.

Virtual Reality Modelling Language. A graphical system that creates views of 3-dimensional images that change as the viewer's angle and position changes and light sources change. It can be used to create an environment or world that appears realistic as you "move" through it. It is widely used for games and for educational applications. The technology is very young and growing fast. It requires a fast computer and fast video support with lots of memory to be effective.

Top

W:

Abbreviation for the World Wide Web Consortium, the organization that develops standards for the web community.

A self-replicating program that reproduces itself over a network. It may cause a lot of damage to computer system connected over a network.

World Wide Web - A multimedia Internet Service that allows users to traverse the Internet by moving from one document to another via links that connect them togather.

Acronym for "What You See Is What You Get". The term applies to word processors and web page development software where you manipulate text and images directly without writing codes (such as HTML or dot codes) for each attribute.

Top

X:

eXtensible HyperText Markup Language. HTML re-written as an application of the XML language.

Acronym for eXtensible Markup Language. A richer subset of SGML than HTML. It is a next step in the evolution of web data formats beyond HTML.

Top

Y:

A common form of file transmission for dialup and telnet connections, which uses 1K blocks of data. It has two forms--single file mode and batch mode. The single file form is sometimes called 1K xmodem, and the batch mode is sometimes called ymodem batch.

Z:

A standard file extension for files compressed with unix compression. It is also occasionally used in lower case to mean gnu unix compression, but .gz is more commonly used for this to avoid confusion.

A method of file compression originally used with MSDOS and a file extension for files which are zip compressed.

Top

Team

Disclaimer

Glossary